Last shot

Chapter 29

The denim couch seemed to sink around Pierce Jameson's weight, the cushions tilting up on either side of him. His broad arms spread across the fabric, ensuring he occupied the entire piece of furniture. A man at leisure. The needlepoint pillow beside him, a wifely touch that inadvertently undercut his tough-guy posturing, stated, IF YOU CAN READ THIS,THANK A TEACHER.SINCE IT'SIN ENGLISH, THANK A SOLDIER.

Pierce's resemblance to his son was evident only in his sturdy frame and the shape of his head. His features were rougher, more craggy-he could have been a longshoreman.

Not having been asked to sit, Tim and Bear remained on their feet at the edge of the living room rug. Pierce's second wife-who seemed far too lovely to have married him-and their two children had retreated to the kitchen, heeding Pierce's pointed glance.

"Nope," Pierce said, "haven't seen hide nor hair for years."

Tim's mouth twisted-con men got under his skin in a hurry.

"Have you talked to him or had contact in any way?" Bear asked. It had been less than twenty-four hours since Walker's escape, but given how quickly he'd gotten to his mother, Tim and Bear were rushing through their contact list.

Pierce shook his head and-again-eyed his watch. The smell of baking biscuits floated through the closed kitchen door.

Tim's irritation flared, and Bear shot him a glance to gauge him. Pierce watched their noninteraction with suspicion.

"Can we have a word with your kids?" Bear asked.

"No."

Tim repeated, "No?"

"They don't need to know they have a jailbird half-brother. Maybe in your family, Deputy…uh, Rackley-right? — that's no big deal. Around here it is." Pierce hefted himself grandly from the couch and strode to the front door, which he jerked open. "Dinnertime with my family is important to me."

Tim stayed his tongue, and he and Bear exited, Pierce closing the door behind them. They sat in Bear's rig out front, watching through a picture window as Pierce joined his family at the table. Pierce looked out at them and twisted the blinds shut.

Guerrera had taken a run through Pierce's rap sheet and relayed his findings-fraud counts all too familiar to Tim. The scams and rackets Pierce had been charged for showed a range as impressive as Tim's father's, though with greater returns, but evidently Pierce had gone straight in his old age. Not a single arrest in ten years.

Tim caught himself wondering if his own father would pull it together before spending his golden years in an orange jumpsuit. Tim had been three when his mother decided she'd had her fill of his father's schemes and infidelities. She'd fled, sacrificing Tim along with the dour house, and he'd spent his childhood being a supporting player in his father's serial cons. The aid beneficiary, the tantrum-throwing diversion maker, the delivery boy-he'd played them all, but from the time he was school age he'd sought the straight and narrow the way other kids sought drugs and bad company. In retrospect his upbringing had been great on-the-job training for undercover and interrogation work. Despite his not speaking to his father since their latest falling-out more than three years ago, Tim couldn't deny that he owed a number of his acuities to him.

"Work on the poker face," Bear said.

"No shit, huh?" Tim ran his hands over his face. "Sorry."

"It's okay. He's lying. He knows we know he's lying. That's good. Let's tell local PD to keep an eye on the house. If Sonny pops by for some quality family time, we nail him."

"Pierce is too smart for that."

"You never know."

"I do." Tim's phone chirped, and he checked caller ID-Shrff's Plm-dale Station. Probably Dray having tracked down her former colleague and the crime report on Tess Jameson's suicide. He flipped open the Nextel. "How's it going with Elliott?"

"I'm with him now, making headway. I'll meet you at the office in an hour, fill you in then. Listen, have Guerrera track down Tess's autopsy report."

"It was a suicide by gunshot. Why would they do an autopsy?"

Dray's sigh, through the phone, sounded like static. "Because she was pregnant."